A subdued future for IOT

In case you haven't heard, the world is going to collapse
soon! Well, not really but scientists and experts from UK have predicted that,
at the current rate of data consumption, the internet will collapse in about 8
years. Wow! That's as good as the end of the world for the digital dreams we
all had.

Which brings me to my favorite subject - Internet of Things
(IOT). This premonition about the 'capacity crunch' of the internet will spell
doomsday for companies betting on IOT enabled products and services since they
will rely heavily on the internet. Real-time sensor-data transfer over the
internet is the backbone of the connected world and one that will bring immense
transformation to the way we use products and services. Gartner predicts 20
billion devices to be connected to the internet by 2020. This figure will only
increase exponentially beyond 2020. All this internet activity due to IOT will
only accelerate the downhill spiral towards the internet capacity crunch. If
there is a capacity crunch in the offing, what happens to all the IOT use
cases? With no regulations or regulatory bodies, how does one optimize usage of
available internet capacity? With much to lose, I think it is time to introspect
and determine what could possibly be a more practical choice for customers to
get the benefits of IOT while still doing their bit to delay the doomsday.

I foresee a subdued future for IOT rather than the
enthusiastic hurrah we hear from most analysts. Let me explain what I mean by
'subdued'. I believe that the theory of a connected world will remain just that
- a theory. (Well, at least in the short term until we are able to figure out
what and how to handle the entire IOT ecosystem and that too in an unregulated
arena.) Gartner may be right about the number of devices being connected by
2020 but when it comes to transmission of data (and here's where the bandwidth
crunch comes into play), it may not be practical to have all the connected
devices to send data at all times. In fact, the rate and type of data to be
transmitted will be controlled by the biggest equalizer in business - the
humble customer or end user.

I think it will be futile and in fact amateurish for
companies to just put up a few sensors on their products and start relaying the
data over the internet. Not every customer would be ready to pay for this
service especially if you are unable to show her the value of doing this
activity in real time 24x7. I predict a bouquet of services to be offered by
corporations to its customers to choose and determine which option best suits
their (customer's) needs. Let's take an example of a smart refrigerator. Not
all customers would be able to afford their refrigerator monitored for its
health 24x7 since that would entail paying for a higher internet plan. Some may
opt for an option wherein once the refrigerator starts giving trouble, the
customer will be alerted on their smartphone and they will then have the
ability to trigger a health check from their phone app. This app will finally
push the logs (findings in software code) from the smart refrigerator to the
service company over the internet for the technicians to analyze and revert
with the best solution. The solution could either be an over-the-air software
update or a field technician visit to check and rectify the problem at site. In
any case, it will mean that the service company will have data upfront to
analyze and decide before any visit.

The higher end customers may go in for predictive maintenance
type of service packages which will help prevent failures but for those who
cannot afford such premium services, they could at least go for these intermediate
solutions. So how does this help in capacity crunch? Voila! - Optimized
transfer of data over the internet from these connected devices. These assets
will be part of IOT and hence connected; they will support customers to control
when to send data and hence control costs and lastly, customers will be in
better control of their data - thus addressing the data privacy concerns of
many.

Internet doomsday or not, customers will challenge the IOT companies
to come out with innovative options that will make the technology economically
feasible to all. And it's upon us to make that happen. It will be disastrous
for all players to thrust connected devices without providing options on how to
optimize internet bandwidth. What do you think is going to happen in the future
of IOT?